Coesite SiO2 c 2001 Mineral Data Publishing, version 1.2 ° Crystal Data: Monoclinic, pseudohexagonal. Point Group: 2=m: As irregular to nearly rectangular grains, up to 3 mm.
Physical Properties: Cleavage: 010 and 012 , suspected. Fracture: Subconchoidal. Hardness = 7.5{8 D(meas.) = n.d. fD(cgalc.) =f 2.92g
Optical Properties: Transparent. Color: Colorless. Luster: Vitreous. Optical Class: Biaxial (+) (synthetic). Orientation: X = b; Z c = 4±{6±. Dispersion: r < v: ^ ® = 1.5940(5) ¯ = 1.5955(5) ° = 1.5990(5) 2V(meas.) = 64± 2V(calc.) = 66±340 Cell Data: Space Group: C2=c: a = 7.143(2) b = 12.383(3) c = 7.143(2) ¯ = 120:00(3)± Z = 16 X-ray Powder Pattern: Synthetic. (ICDD 14-654). 3.09 (100), 3.43 (30), 1.71 (12), 1.345 (12), 2.69 (10), 1.70 (10), 1.545 (10)
Chemistry: (1)
SiO2 99.56 TiO2 0.00 Al2O3 0.05 FeO 0.03 MnO 0.00 MgO 0.00
Na2O 0.04 K2O 0.00 Total 99.68
(1) Roberts Victor mine, South Africa; by electron microprobe, average of four analyses.
Polymorphism & Series: Quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, and stishovite are polymorphs.
Occurrence: Formed at pressures in excess of 20 kbar, as ¯ne-grained intergrowths with quartz and silica glass in impact metamorphosed rocks and tektites. A primary phase in grospydite (kyanite-garnet-clinopyroxene) xenoliths in kimberlite, and intergrown with quartz as inclusions in garnet and clinopyroxene within eclogites of high-grade metamorphic terranes.
Association: Quartz, stishovite, silica glass, kyanite, omphacite, garnet, sanidine, muscovite, talc, rutile, dolomite.
Distribution: From Meteor Crater, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA. At the NÄordlinger Ries crater, Bavaria, Germany. In the Kara structure, Pay-Khoy, Russia. In Italy, in the Dora-Maira massif, Parigi, near Martiniana Po, Piedmont. From Grytting, Selje district, Norway. In the Wabar craters, Rub' al Khali, Saudi Arabia. At Dabie Mountain, west of Qianshan, Anhwei Province, China. In the Roberts Victor diamond mine, near Kimberley, Cape Province, and near Bosho®, Orange Free State, South Africa.
Name: For Loring Coes, Jr. (1915{ ), American chemist, who synthesized the material prior to the discovery of a natural occurrence.
Type Material: n.d.
References: (1) Frondel, C. (1962) Dana's system of mineralogy, (7th edition), v. III, silica minerals, 310{316. (2) Sclar, C.B., L.C. Carrison, and C.M. Schwartz (1962) Optical crystallography of coesite. Amer. Mineral., 47, 1292{1302. (3) Gibbs, G.V., C.T. Prewitt, and K.J. Baldwin (1977) A study of the structural chemistry of coesite. Zeits. Krist., 145, 108{123. (4) Smyth, J.R. and C.J. Hatton (1977) A coesite-sanidine grospydite from the Roberts Victor kimberlite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 34, 284{290. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of Mineral Data Publishing.